Hotel histories of apartheid South Africa: the emergence and expansion of the Southern Sun Hotel Group c. 1960–1983

Abstract

Although hotels are at the heart of the international tourism economy, research on hotels constitutes only a minor theme in tourism scholarship. This article addresses the essential present-mindedness of tourism studies. More specifically, through archival documentary sources, it seeks to analyse the emergence and expansion of one leading hotel group, Southern Sun Hotels, in the context of the changing and challenging business environment for tourism development of apartheid South Africa. The reference period for this investigation marks the growing isolation of South Africa in the international community and the beginnings of boycotts and sanctions. The article represents a contribution to scholarship on hotel histories and to the growing literature devoted to the impact of sanctions on the tourism industry and tourism businesses. It is argued that the rise and expansion of Southern Sun hotels was facilitated by the business environment, which was fostered by the apartheid state in the context of South Africa’s growing international isolation and the onset of sanctions. Following Southern Sun’s initial expansion in leisure and business hotels an important new chapter opened with the apartheid policy of Bantustan development and the opening of casino-resorts by Southern Sun.